One of San Francisco's older buildings, the 1908 Bank of Italy, is the new home of one of the city's latest men's clothing stores and lifestyle concepts: Ami Arad's Wingtip boutique and private club.

The Financial District store is filled with distinctive lines of menswear and accessories, even more distinctively displayed amid marble walls, built-in vaults, teller windows and an old safe deposit box room, for dramatic effect.

The 6,000-square-foot Financial District store is on street and basement levels. The 10th and 11th floors are home to the Wingtip private club, where dues-paying members ($2,500 to join, $200 a month thereafter) can sip wine or host business meetings and parties catered by the club's chef.

Other perks: a cuff link, pocket square and necktie library, and a car and driver to whisk members around town in an Audi S-8.

Owner Ami Arad, a former software salesman, thinks that the growth in the men's apparel market makes the time right to open the store and club in the Financial District. He previously operated two men's stores called On the Fly in the Embarcadero Center. Wingtip is the same business, with a new name and new location (the store also operates online).

Arad, 36, who wore a suit and tie on the high school debate team and worked in a men's store while studying at UC Berkeley, strayed into computer sales during the tech boom of 2000.

He often conducted business meetings in Starbucks, which were loud and lacked privacy. He didn't like software sales much anyway, so he set up a clothing store and a private club to meet his own needs. The rest is history.

"I thought, 'Why not create a quiet, exclusive place to entertain?' " he said. "The idea was that this would be a perk for our best customers."

His natty clients include KGO television anchorman Dan Ashley, drawn by the store's historical environment - "there's a quality about it that's almost like another era" - and accessories that add polish on air.

"I've always worn a pocket square, but Ami has a product that I've never seen before, which is a pocket circle," Ashley said. "I wear these almost every night. They have embroidery around every edge. It's a sharp, clean, contemporary look, and an elegant idea."